Have you been to a Chinese restaurant with a variety of meats dangling in the window? (If not, read this later and run to Chinatown now!) It’s usually roast pork, crackling pork, roast duck, ginger (white) chicken, and soy sauce chicken. Sometimes, there’s pork intestines or other innards. You can buy any by the pound or have the classic workmen’s lunch: San Bao Fan. The rough translation would be Three Specialties (Treasures) Rice, a choice of 3 of the meats over rice. There’s usually a vegetable included and sometimes a stewed egg.
Roast pork seems to be the pick for everyone, but my favorite of the bunch is soy sauce chicken. I usually think of chicken as boring, but soy sauce chicken is totally different. The sweet and salty skin is like chicken candy. The meat has a an extra bounce. The secret comes in two parts: freshly killed chicken and an interesting cooking method.
The hardest part is probably getting a freshly killed chicken. The only live poultry market I know of is one in Flushing called Greenpoint Farm 3651 College Point Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11354. You can pick out your bird; chickens are about $2.49 per pound. Then you’ll have to run home and make the chicken right away (before rigor mortis sets in, as pointed out by Enya). The weirdest part for me was getting home and touching the chicken. It was still warm, which makes sense, but it’s just so different from pulling a cold chicken out of the fridge.
The cooking method amazes me, as do many classic Chinese techniques. It feels like you only cook this whole chicken for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes of boiling, you just shut off the heat and leave it there for 5 hours. How could it be cooked all the way through? But it is! And, it’s the most amazing chicken texture you’ll ever bite in to.
This does take some time management because you’ll want to eat that chicken right when it’s done, when it’s just barely warm. Of course you can store left-overs in the fridge for future eating, but it won’t be quite as good as that optimal point. Think of it as chicken that has never ever been refrigerated. Enjoy!
Soy Sauce Chicken
~8 small servings
- 4 cups soy sauce
- 2 cups water
- 12 ounces rock candy/sugar
- 2 (3″x 2″ x 1″) pieces peeled ginger, smashed
- 4 1/2 pound live chicken
Instructions –
*You want to use a pot that allows the chicken to lay in comfortably, but without too much space around it. See picture in step 3.
1. Fill pot with soy sauce, water, rock candy, and ginger. Bring to a boil and continue simmering until rock candy dissolves.
2. While rock candy is melting, wash the chicken in cold water and cut off the head, neck, feet, and tail (discard). Remove the skin from the neck.
3. Put chicken in the pot back side down. Add feet, neck, and head. Cover and boil for 3 minutes.
4. Turn the chicken over so that breast side is down. Cover and boil for 4 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat and leave the pot covered. Do not touch it for 5 hours. Do not open the lid!
6. Remove to a plate and let it drain for 15 minutes. (You can make other dishes at this time.)
7. Cut chicken with a cleaver and serve with rice. (If you’re not comfortable chopping through bone, you can serve it any way you like.)
*Notes: Save the sauce. It can be drizzled on rice, and you can make another chicken using the same pot of sauce.
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I can’t believe you went and bought a live chicken and then cooked it straight away! “It was still warm” [shudder!] There’s actually a live chicken place very close to where I live, but I can’t bring myself to go there. I’m such a chicken (no pun intended) when it comes to these things. I gotta say, though, your chicken looks fantastic. I once tried fresh chicken at Grand Sichuan in NYC and it was very delicious.
I know I’d never buy a live chicken and do all the butchering, but this sounds like it’d still be good with regular chicken even if not as good. I guess I should bring the not fresh chicken to room temperature first?
Tiny Urban Kitchen, it was a bit uncomfortable for me. I’m the type of person who sees a furry animal and I want to cuddle it. It is amazing though.
Kasi, I was just talking to my friend Amy about this at lunch. I think the flavors would still be tasty with regular chicken but the texture won’t be quite as mind-blowing. As you said, definitely rest the chicken in room temperature first to take the chill off. Also, keep in mind that my 4 1/2 chicken had a head, neck, and legs. If using a supermarket chicken, which often does not have all those things, try a 3 lb chicken. I”m curious how it will turn out so definitely let me know.
Yum that looks good! I remember the first time I went to Chinatown the first thing I saw was a stall that had a whole cooked goose hanging by its neck, it took me a while to get enough courage to go back to Chinatown after that.
i’m squeamish. i’m squeamish and i don’t like to see eyeballs, or really, heads in general. i sure do like chicken though…
Whoa, fresh! I don’t know where we could get a live chicken, so we’ll try this with “regular dead chickens”, LOL. We still haven’t tried poaching with the heat turned off; we’re still “afraid”, I guess. But, we will. We would just need to write a big note saying “DO NOT TOUCH!”
The soy chicken always look so evenly coloured and shiny but somehow it’s not a very common dish on our table. We always get distracted by the roast ruck and pork =P
This looks so good. I experimented with raising chickens and processing them myself. The weird thing is that the farmer that took us through the whole process advised us not to eat the chicken the same day we processed them. Apparently, their muscles tighten up and need a day to rest so it loosens up again. I actually cooked one of them the same evening they were killed and it was really tough. Maybe it’s the method not so much the freshness of the chicken which makes this so good.
ts, just in case you didn’t see it, read the comment I wrote to Kasi for some things to keep in mind for “regular” chicken. Let me know how it goes.
Enya, wow, my mom grew up raising chickens but I couldn’t even imagine! Thanks for bring up this point. As I mentioned, my mom always buys the chicken and rushes home to make it, but I failed to mention why. It’s before rigor mortis sets in (which I’ll add to the post, thanks!). After that you would have to wait until the muscles relax again, which would not be as good.
I love soy chicken but only in chicken breasts!! I don’t like to see a whole live chicken with head & feet!
We recently had a shop in Schenectady open up that butchers live chickens etc. Steve Barnes Times Union critic, journalist and blogger went over and purchased one killed just for him. He drove immediately back to the TU (about 20 to 30 minutes) and proceeded to cook it. Nobody liked it as it was so tough which presumably proves the rigor theory.
MiMi, could you link me to the article? I would love to read it. I’m not sure why it was tough after just 20 to 30 minutes. I think my mom cooks it around 20 to 30 minutes after getting the chickens as well. She’s made it countless times and it’s always amazing.
Thanks for the recipe. That’s amazing!
That chicken looks amazing! I’m actually a huge fan of soy sauce chicken as well, but I usually make it with cornish hen as the meat is more tender and the portion control is more manageable for one person haha.
wow this looks so cool. I’ve always wanted to make a whole, prepared chicken like this. Do you serve it at room temperature? I’ve always had it cold to lukewarm in restaurants. Is re-heating it an option?
@Mimi, perhaps the chicken was killed well before the critic actually picked it up. It’s the only thing I can think of, since I’ve used freshly killed chicken meat in the past, but I saw the butcher kill and clean it right in front of me before it was taken to the kitchen to cook. It was about 30 minutes from slaughter to preparation for cooking.
Kaiding, it’s best at room temperature, fresh. Once it has been refrigerated, the texture changes a bit. Still good though and you certainly won’t want to throw any away. Re-heating is up to you. I prefer not to.
I’m missing one part, do you clean out the chicken? Its innards? I raise chickens and would love to try this.
Great blog Jessica! Hope you’re feeling well now in your pregnancy!
pat
Pat, so awesome that you raise chickens! Yours will come out so delicious!! Yes, do remove the innards. Let me know what you think!!
Wow, always good to see other people with decent posts. I really appreciate the time it must have taken to put together this blog…Hmmm… i just noticed that your RSS feed is not working probarly. thought I should let u know! Can you tell me any related articles? Cheers.”